Sullivan issues Yeung apology

25 November 2009 05:26

In a written apology to the Birmingham Mail Sullivan has retracted what he described as "off the cuff remarks" in the aftermath of Yeung's takeover at the club.

A war of words had be raging between the old and new regimes at St Andrew's after Yeung was surprised to learn he had inherited an extra £6million worth of debt.

But Sullivan wants to draw a line under the matter and said: "When the final whistle blew against Fulham on Saturday, I was delighted.

"Delighted for Lee Bowyer, delighted for Alex McLeish, delighted for the fans and delighted for Birmingham City FC.

"But then I felt saddened, deeply saddened, because of all these unresolved issues between the old Blues owners and the new Carson Yeung regime.

"Our bitter fall-out just won't help the club. If it lingers, it could distract the new owners and therefore the manager and the team, as well as costing all of us lots of time and money arguing via lawyers.

"For me, the Gold brothers and Karren Brady, it also threatens to sour what we hoped would be a healthy, long-term relationship with a club where we spent nearly 17 years of time, effort and passion.

"So today I want to clear the air.

"I want to retract the rude, off-the-cuff remarks I've made about the Yeung camp.

"I want to express my growing admiration for what they are doing at the club.

"And I want to publicly offer them the chance to sit down calmly, to tell me in detail what the issues are, and to propose how they think they could be settled.

"This is a genuine offer, this time with no barbed comments.

"Because I know I was wrong to get personal about Carson Yeung. When I dismissed him as a 'hairdresser' and gave my opinion on how they were trying to woo the fans, these were knee-jerk comments that I regret.